It's time for another chapter of... TRANSFORMED!!!
Sorry it took so long to put up, I was actually discouraged to write this chapter because of an obviously thoughtless review I got.
And I had to rewrite it numerous times because the computer did weird things....and I've learned to save every few seconds. So sorry if it isn't good, I didn't have time to proofread, and I wanted to get it to you guys ASAP.
And, once again, thanks to those of you that reviewed, and especially to those who took longer than 20 seconds! You're awesome!
This time you get an orange! Õ yum…
And a cherry! δ mmm…
And a strawberry! Ω
It's fruit salad! (yummy, yummy!) Kinda...
Just use your ImagiNatiOn
houseofnightlover1897: Hey, I don't know if you noticed, but this site is called FANFICTION for a reason. People are supposed to write their own version of books they love, and if you hate my story so much, STOP READING IT. Maybe you just googled the book and this is what came up, but you really shouldn't jump to hateful conclusions. And yes, chapter three was weird, but I said that it was and I couldn't think of another way to end up having her taste his blood. So deal with it. And how did you not notice my author's comments on every single chapter??? You don't have to be such a jerk-face.
Sorry if that was rude, but you kind of deserved it.
Enjoy!
Aphrodite
"Just try again some other time!" Zoey yelled as Aphrodite and the nerd herd reached out for her at the same time. And then, what used to be Zoey was suddenly a bunch of glittering pieces drifting steadily to the floor.
Aphrodite just stared at where her—she couldn't deny it anymore—friend had been standing just moments before. Some of the sparkly dust falling to the floor was headed towards Aphrodite's arm, but instead of landing on her, they passed right through her still outstretched hand and slowly disappeared as they neared the ground. She swiftly clutched her hand to herself and tried to rub away the strange tingles going down her arm.
"It's alright," Stevie Rae soothed. "She just…does that."
"Yeah," Stark agreed shakily, "She did that in my dream, too."
"Where is she now?" Jack sniffled from beside Damien, who promptly wrapped his arm around Jack's shoulders.
Nobody seemed to be able to answer that, and so they all just stood in their kind-of circle, the light that had been connecting them now gone.
"Well," Stark began reluctantly after a few uncomfortable minutes, "I guess you should all get some sleep, it's getting late." As if on cue, Shaunee and Erin yawned together, and the clock on the fireplace's mantle chimed. Aphrodite fought a yawn in response to theirs, and wordlessly left the room. As she approached her room, she stretched her arms and finally let herself yawn. Now that she thought about it, she'd been up almost fourteen hours straight, busy being worried about Zoey.
"Zoey owes me," she growled to no one in particular as she entered her empty bedroom and began getting ready for some major beauty sleep. She decided to take a nice, long, hot shower, hoping that it might make her feel better. Or at least less gross.
Aphrodite used up a lot of the hot water, and by the end of her extended time in the shower, the water had become cold. After she got dressed, she brushed her teeth to get that totally nasty taste out and brushed her hair then put it in a ponytail so it wouldn't get tangled as she slept. Just as she was about to lay down, she heard her cell phone vibrate on the bedside table her. She glared at it for a few seconds, before completely ignoring it and just going to bed. She fell asleep before her head even hit the pillow.
Aphrodite was standing in that same field from her previous half-vision with Kalona and Zoey, and she could tell right away that she was having another vision. She prayed to the merciful Goddess that it wouldn't be as painful as her last one.
Kalona stepped out of the forest on the opposite side of where Aphrodite was standing. He turned a little and beckoned coldly behind him. A tired-looking Zoey suddenly appeared flanked by three Raven Mockers. She stumbled forward and Kalona reached out to help her, but she shied defiantly away from him. This seemed to anger him. He began talking to her in a low voice, and Aphrodite could not hear what was being said. Zoey narrowed her eyes and shook her head determinedly at Kalona, and he angrily stepped forward and released his rage onto Aphrodite and the humans and vampyres she hadn't noticed were around her.
Excruciating pain ran through Aphrodite's veins, and she heard screaming from all around her. It was exactly how she had felt in the first vision of Zoey and Kalona, and she tried not to fall to the ground from the immense pain consuming her body. She saw flames, and smelled the stench of burning grain—it must have been wheat, or chaff, or whatever—amongst other burning smells. Just when she thought she would have to die from sheer pain, it stopped, and she was suddenly standing again.
It must be another half-vision, Aphrodite guessed, hoping that this one, like in her other vision, would be less painful in the second half. She looked up, to see Kalona emerging from the forest yet again. This time, however, Zoey was beside him, her hand in his, happy and looking very much at peace. As they approached the gathered bunch of humans and vampyres, Kalona motioned towards them in a way of grandeur. The burning sensation began again, and Aphrodite could see the evident look of alarm on Zoey's face.
Even through her horrible pain, Aphrodite could see Zoey and Kalona. She watched as Zoey turned to Kalona and looked deep into his eyes, then tentatively reached up to kiss him. As their lips met, the terrible screaming and pain ended, and Kalona became enveloped in such a bright light it was hard to see anything, even Aphrodite's own hands in front of her. There was a loud whoosh-ing sound, and suddenly there was only black.
When Aphrodite's senses returned, she was shivering, shaking, and in someone's arms. They were telling her to 'hush' and that 'everything would be okay'. Darius' deep, soothing voice calmed her down enough to realize that she couldn't see. Again. Her hands flew up to her face, and she felt her swollen eyes and sweaty face.
"I must look like crap," she croaked softly.
"Well, you certainly have looked better," Darius admitted, sounding anxious and amused at the same time. "Such as when your eyes are not completely blood-shot."
"C-can you get me a towel? A cold, wet, towel?" Aphrodite asked shakily.
"Of course."
She felt Darius get up beside her, and even though she was sweating, she missed his warmth. While he was gone, she thought about what had just happened. Never before had she had a vision while she was asleep, so something drastic must have happened. And while this vision wasn't much different than the other one, there were some subtle distinctions she had noticed. For one, in the first half, Zoey was never on Kalona's side at all, and during the second half, her kiss ended the pain and misery. Aphrodite thought about this as Darius returned with a wonderful-feeling towel and placed it over her eyes.
"What time is it?" Aphrodite asked after about five minutes and most of her sight back.
"About eight AM. I could feel your...anxiousness, through our bond, and came to your service." Darius whispered back.
"Well," Aphrodite began as she started to stand up, not the slightest bit surprised that she'd only slept for an hour. "It was a vision, and one that I think the nerd herd and Stark should hear about." But, after thinking about it, Stark was partof the nerd herd now, too, wasn't he?
"Yes, that would be wise."
Aphrodite could see almost as good as new, so she grasped Darius' arm and walked back towards Zoey' s room. To her surprise, everyone was still in the room. She opened her mouth to tell them about her vision, but noticed Stevie Rae on the phone just in time. She rolled her eyes and clamped her mouth shut, wanting everyone's attention for what she had to say, and noticed Stevie Rae writing something down on a notepad.
"That it?" she heard Stevie Rae ask as she neared the table the whole nerd herd—including Stark—was standing around. "Alright. Thanks, Kramisha. Yeah, we'll do our best. Yeah, you too. See ya."
She flipped her phone shut, and let out a huge sigh.
"What did it say?" Damien pressed; for what, Aphrodite had no idea.
Stevie Rae held out the notepad so everyone could see it, and Aphrodite read the words along with everyone else:
'The dark angel's shadow,
Beclouds her keen sense.
Compelled by a bond,
Everlasting by his Mark.
Her time has yet to come,
But beware a stark Betrayal.
A decision must be made,
And should wrong be the Chosen,
An Untamed conniption
Shall Hunt upon men.
But Tempting with love
Heals a sad broken soul;
They will be Transformed.
And the nefarious Kalona
Will be expunged
Forever.'
For a few moments, nobody spoke. As she read the poem again, Aphrodite rolled her eyes; she hated it when poems didn't rhyme. Without the rhyming, they were just a bunch of really big, annoying, descriptive words.
"Uh, Damien—" One 'Twin' began, and the other finished.
"—could you please translate?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. Let's go line by line, like usual." Damien glanced down at the piece of paper, and Aphrodite rolled her eyes at his suddenly teacher-like formality. "The 'dark angel' has to refer to Kalona, and I will assume 'her' is referring to Zoey."
"So basically it's saying that Kalona's evilness is clouding Zoey's judgment," Stark clarified.
"Yes," Damien nodded at him. "And 'compelled by a bond' must refer to the fact that Zoey is A-ya reincarnated, and still has suppressed feelings for Kalona. But this next one, 'Everlasting by his Mark—"
"What if Kalona hurt her!" Jack added quite shrilly.
"No!" Stark shouted quickly, his eyes darting from Jack to Damien. "I mean, I would feel that, right?"
"Who knows? Weird things are happening. Maybe your oath doesn't apply any more." Aphrodite stated exasperatedly after rolling her eyes at the recently-edgy Stark. He was such a spazz. If anything else happened, she was sure he'd explode. Damien simply stared at the paper, a thoughtful look on his face.
"His mark…" he trailed off, clearly trying to think of anything this could mean, or symbolize. "The only thing I can think of is that he's harmed her, or is somehow threatening her?" The last bit was a question, and he looked uncertain. Aphrodite didn't think Kalona was harming or blackmailing Zoey, but she couldn't think of anything else it could mean. But, whatever it was, Aphrodite got a really bad feeling about Zoey when she thought about her vision and the poem.
"'Her time has yet to come'," Damien moved on, "Which probably refers to Kalona's fall or rise, and Zoey's role in it. And then there's this 'But beware a stark betrayal'—"
"Me?" Stark's head snapped up and his eyes clouded with confusion. "But I'm her warrior, I could never—"
"Let me repeat myself," Aphrodite interrupted, enunciating very precisely. She had to prevent The Spazz from exploding his grimy guts all over her new fuzzy socks. "Things are really weird right now. Maybe your oath does not apply anymore."
She let her words sink in before rapidly leaning into Darius' side, a wave of exhaustion sweeping over her. The nerd herd all sent nasty looks in her direction, then continued on their merry way. She almost rolled her eyes again, but she'd rolled them so much already, they were beginning to ache.
"'A decision must be made, And should wrong be the Chosen,' that's pretty self explanatory," Damien continued quickly, changing the subject. "An Untamed conniption Shall Hunt upon men.'"
"'Conniption'?"
"Teach us, O wise and insightful Damien!" Erin cried, throwing her arms into the air with humorously fake worship.
Aphrodite rolled her eyes once again, and the hint of a smile that had been tugging at the corners of her mouth vanished as a wave of throbbing pain took hold of her sore eyes and skull. She held back a moan of displeasure, and began to warily rummage through her purse, that she had thankfully brought, for the ibuprofen that had to be in there somewhere.... She was really beginning to wish she'd brought an icepack or something; her eyes were becoming sore again.
"Nice, Twin," Shaunee complemented.
"Conniption," Damien began with a grin, "Means a hysterical fit of emotion, usually anger or excitement."
"So basically, if the wrong choice is made we're all screwed?" Aphrodite added tiredly, finally finding the pill bottle.
"Basically."
"Okay. Great."
"What choice does it mean?" Stevie Rae wondered aloud, speaking for the first time in some time. Aphrodite slowly examined the room for any water bottles or glasses anywhere, to no avail.
"Well, we'll just have to see, won't we?" Shaunee answered brightly.
"Ahem," Damien cleared his throat to carry on with the decrypting of the poem. "But Tempting with love Heals a sad broken soul.'"
"Zoey said something about Kalona being a fallen angel, and how he used to be one of Nyx's warriors until she banished him for something," Stark started uncertainly. "Maybe that's what 'a sad broken soul' means."
"Makes sense. And 'Tempting with love' could, again, refer to Zoey being a reincarnation of A-ya, and how she could just allow herself to love Kalona," Damien tried tentatively, and was met with blank looks from the rest of the group. "Maybe she's supposed to," he defended himself, "Maybe she's supposed to fool him into thinking that she loves him..."
"That could have some really nasty results," Shaunee began.
"Yeah, like some totally disgusting mutant bird-children!" Erin finished with a grimace. Aphrodite dry swallowed the pills and grimaced herself--both at the gross feeling of the pills stuck in her dry throat and at the vivid picture of Raven Mocker babies her mind brought up. Yeesh.
"I don't think she'd let it go that far," Jack insisted, "And maybe Kalona would actually listen to her if he believed she loved him."
Aphrodite's eyes were beginning to water from the stuck pills, which made her eyes feel slightly better, but did nothing to un-stick the tablets. She swallowed for the umpteenth time, and excused herself quietly from the room. Darius would fill her in later. She rubbed her neck, in hopes of dislodging the medicine, but was having no such luck. She entered the first bathroom she saw, grabbed a dixie cup that was luckily on the counter, filled it with water, and quickly downed it all. The pills had moved a bit, but Aphrodite took another drink to wash them completely down. She then splashed cold water onto her face and aching eyes, which began to feel a little better. She breathed in deeply, dried her face, and headed back towards the nerd herd and Darius.
When she entered they were still on the last stanza. Aphrodite nticed that Damien was holding a book and was quickly flipping through it's pages. As she got closer she realized it was a dictionary, and she raised her eyebrows in surprise. Since when did Damien, King of All Words Known to Man, need the help of a Dictionary? Damien was looking flustered, probably because he didn't know right off the top of his head what a word was.
A warm arm snaked around Aphrodite's waist, drawing her closer to Darius. He explained gently to her that Damien was looking up the definition of 'Nefarious', and asked if she was feeling any better. She said that she was, and pondered the meaning of the word... Nefarious... It rang a bell...
"Here it is!" Damien cried with triumph as he at last found the word. "'Nefarious- adjective; extremely wicked or villainous; iniquitous: a nefarious plot.' So it means the Evil Kalona."
"Oh my goodness!"Stevie Rea squealed. "Ya'll realize what this means? The name, it just fits!"
When she was met by more blank stares, she rolled her eyes impatiently and explained. "Nefarious... Neferet... Neferet's evil, nefarious means evil..."
"Her mother was so cruel."
"Too true, Twin."
"Not necessarily," Aphrodite said, feeling slightly better. "She could have chosen that name for herself when she first entered the House of Night, meaning she chose that name for herself."
"Creepy," Jack broke the momentary silence and shuddered. "That's just weird as all get out."
"And Kalona and Neferet are, like, together, and they're both 'wicked', so it kinda has a double meanin'," Stevie Rea pointed out.
"And it says 'Will be expunged Forever', meaning that Kalona will be destroyed forever," Damien hastily redeemed his lack of knowledge.
"So, altogether, it means--"
"--Kalona is clouding Zoey's judgement because she's A-ya,"
"And she's gonna be betrayed by Stark--"
"--And has to make a choice."
"One which will end badly,"
"And one which will end in Kalona being destroyed. Which is good." Shaunee and Erin smiled at each other, and Aphrodite was weirded out.
"Yeah," Aphrodite sighed, "And you just wait 'till what I have to say."
Hehe, did ya see how I put all the titles of all da books in da poem? Sorry if you didn't like it, I just wrote what first popped into my mind. And that had all the book titles in it. You can diss it if it so pleases you.
Tell me watcha think; Review! You guys *sniff* have been the best *stifles a sob* reviewers I've ever *sniff* had for any story EVER!!! *breaks out into tears...of HAPPINESS!!!*
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